The great cophta
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| Title: | The great cophta |
| Genus: | Comedy |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Johann Wolfgang von Goethe |
| Publishing year: | 1792 |
| Premiere: | December 17, 1791 |
| Place of premiere: | Weimar Court Theater |
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Der Groß-Cophta is a comedy in five acts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . Created in the summer of 1791, the play was premiered on December 17, 1791 in the Ducal Court Theater in Weimar with music by Johann Friedrich Kranz (1754-1810) and was in print in 1792.
The great cophta poses as the head of a secret society in order to cheat his gullible audience.
- In eternal youth he has been walking this earth for centuries. India, Egypt is his favorite stay. He enters the desert of Libya naked; There he carelessly explores the secrets of nature.
The action takes place in an imaginary small state ruled by the prince . His daughter, the princess , is said to be in need of a precious collar.
action
- First elevator
Count Rostro intimidates an evening party by simply appearing and calls Uriel and Ithruriel. Even the host canon speaks respectfully to the authoritarian count with My Lord and Master! on. The count trains and kujons the ladies and gentlemen present. The knight Greville is not frightened by these ghosts, but dutifully says the grand cophta's first degree motto : Whatever you want people to do to you, you will do them to them too. The marquise even calls the count, speaking only aside, a dreamer , a liar and a deceiver . When the count is later alone with the canon's servant, the viewer learns that the count is in reality a deceiver.
- second elevator
The marquise's niece recently lost her mother; she was brought up in the country and has only been in the city for three days. And then the young blood has been quickly robbed of its innocence by the Marquis .
The marquise comes from the canon and tells her husband and the audience about her trickery. The canon adores the princess, but has fallen out of favor with her. The marquise "brought" a letter from the princess to the canon, in which she promised him her renewed grace on one condition. He should act as the buyer of the precious collar for you and pay the first installment. The canon is beside himself with happiness. The marquise wrote the letter herself. The Princely House, of course, does not know anything about the forgery. The deceitful marquise plans: We'll break the jewelry apart, you go over to England, sell, first exchange the little stones with wisdom; I will follow up as soon as my security no longer allows me to stay here; in the meantime I want to manage the matter in such a way and so confuse it that the canon gets stuck alone. The marquis participates.
The knight is coming. He and the niece immediately like each other. The marquise lies to the knight and niece about the supernatural power of the count. Then the great magician appears. He makes the niece anxious . Does he want to abuse her as the medium for a joint collar trickery with the marquise? The count sees the niece as an innocent , a dove . But the niece, long since seduced by the Marquis, trembles and trembles because she is no longer a dove .
When the niece is alone with the marquise, she confesses to her aunt her relationship with her uncle. The marquise carries the news calmly and exults Oh! it will only be all the more supple, will obey me blindly, and this discovery also gives me new advantages over my husband.
- third elevator
The canon awaits the court jewelers and triumphs. When the princess this gem procured without vorbewusst her father , then he will still tighter to socialize .
You will be mine! he cheers, signs the contract, takes over the collar from the jewelers and passes it on to the marquise's messenger.
The canon is busy. He receives the knight. Both are to be raised by the count to the next higher degree of Grand Cophta. The knight is surprised when the Canon, in the presence of the Count, announces the motto of the second degree : What you want people to do for you, do not do for them.
All people , including the Canon, are egoists . So far so good. When the count and the knight talk in private, the count tells the knight that he had used the canon to try him [the knight]. The knight passed the test and the count greeted him as master. The knight's gratitude is limitless . When the count is alone, he says that the fishing rods and the nets must be set up according to the portion of the fish. It seems like the knight went into the net.
All are gathered. In a grand entrance, the Count reveals himself as the Grand Cophta. His insolence exceeds my expectations , says the marquise aside. Is it possible that there are still several of your kind? the Canon asks incredulously. The niece, who is no longer a virgin, has to surrender as a medium and sees a lady in an illuminated sphere , whom the delighted canon present can take for an appearance of the princess. In addition, the knight adores the niece. At the peak of clairvoyance, the niece sees the canon in the sphere. The canon next to his princess in the ball! The teased Canon is blissful and grateful to the Count for the result of the séance. The niece faints . The knight calls out: Help her! ... It is unforgivable that you did not fire them sooner!
- Fourth elevator
The niece assesses the current situation: The canon loves the princess, and should I even introduce her? The Marquis ... is a vain, impudent, reckless man who has made me unhappy and will soon consent to my ruin just to get rid of me. The Canon is just as dangerous. The count a fraud. Oh, only the knight would be the man I could turn to. His figure, his demeanor, his disposition at the first moment marked him as a righteous, reliable, active youth; and if I am not mistaken, he was not indifferent to me. The coming marquise confirms the assumption: You introduce the princess. The niece complains: You will not save me if I am judged. Everything is correct, but it doesn't help her. The niece is chosen by the marquise to continue to deceive the canon.
The niece pours the knight pure wine in private. His eyes open in the face of the truth. The knight describes the niece as a double, triple actress , and they part unhappily . I'm never going to see you again , he says unmistakably good-bye to the niece.
The niece's next weakness in character follows immediately. The Marquis has the gems with him and wants to go to England alone with the very young, desirable niece. Apparently the marquise is the fifth wheel on the wagon. The viewer is amazed when the niece of the - suddenly rich - Marquis says: Take me wherever you want.
The bitter knight rushes to the minister and unpacks.
- Fifth elevator
Why does the count appear in the nocturnal pleasure garden? His monologue sounds as if he didn't know himself: I don't understand ... The Marquise ordered the Canon out of here; would it be possible that she could have won the princess? Of course, the princess is left out of the game. The sovereign's daughter is portrayed by the niece, who is gifted as an actor. The actress is driven by the marquis and the marquise with four horses to the tête-à-tête with the trusting canon. The fraudsters want to continue with the jewelry towards the national border. When the canon finally wants to rendezvous with the “princess”, the heavily armed state power intervenes. With detailed information from the knight, it is child's play for the guardsmen to catch the culprits in the act in the open air. With special consideration of their respective social status, all delinquents get away with a black eye: The marquis and the marquise have to give up the individual parts of the collar and are only banned. Even the canon has to leave the beautiful country . But he is given eight days and he can return home later on demand. The guards beat the count from the scene, and the niece is allowed to withdraw to a nearby convent for a limited period of time. Your knight says how things will go after the play: I have only one wish and one hope, to raise the good girl [the niece] and to give her back to herself and the world.
background
Even before Cagliostro was involved in the collar affair , Goethe had dealt intensively with the impostor. He followed the process eagerly and studied unimportant procedural documents in detail. In 1787, when Cagliostro was already imprisoned, Goethe pretended to be a confidante under a false name with the charlatan's family in Sicily, conveyed greetings and later published letters from his mother that had been entrusted to him to be forwarded to her son - all with the intention to expose the "Great Cophta". During this time, Goethe came up with the idea for a comedy "The Mystified", which remained a fragment. In Weimar, the poet then formed the subject into "The Great Cophta".
On January 17, 1791, Goethe became director of the Ducal Court Theater in Weimar. The comedy house was reopened on May 7, 1791. With regard to the audience's need for entertainment, pieces like the Groß-Cophta or the Der Bürgergeneral had to be produced.
Goethe processed the collar affair and appearances of the charlatan Cagliostro in the Groß-Cophta . After all, the French Queen Marie Antoinette and Cardinal Louis de Rohan were involved in the collar affair. The Grand Cophta is about the moral decline of the Ancien Régime , in which Goethe saw one of the causes of the French Revolution . Goethe made his piece acceptable by "renaming" and tricks. He calls Queen Marie Antoinette a princess and doesn't let her perform at all. The canon is called Cardinal de Rohan . The impostor Jeanne de St. Rémy de Valois (the Comtesse de La Motte from the collar affair) is simply called the Marquise in Goethe . Cagliostro is called the Count Rostro . At least the last five letters of the two names match.
Cagliostro was probably not involved in the collar affair at all, and he was acquitted in the subsequent court case. Goethe worked the colorful, shimmering, Europe-known figure into his play, because he wanted to educate the audience as a theater director. The big cophta should be more than a simple crook.
Testimonials
" You can imagine that the French Revolution was a revolution for me too."
"I am glad that you have not yet lost your old tendency towards cophta , and that you did not completely dislike the idea in Lauchstädt, I will have it listed as a landmark at least once every year. The other German theaters will be wary of it for more than one reason. "
“I was… with Goethe, who was weary at first and then very cheerful. Among other things, he spoke very wittily and vividly about the three main causes of the French Revolution , ... and added a fourth to them: Antoinetten's complete neglect of all etiquette. 'If one spends several millions at a court in order to have certain forms as barriers against the crowd, it is foolish and ridiculous to throw them overboard again.' "
reception
- Karl Otto Conrady points out that the inner connection between Cagliostro's appearances (in the play, the Count ) and the crook's story of stolen jewelry is too loose .
- Nicholas Boyle characterizes the recipient's rejection of the piece as an aha experience and a turning point in Goethe's poetic production.
Individual evidence
literature
Secondary literature
Sorted by year of publication
- Richard Friedenthal : Goethe - his life and his time. Pp. 384-385. R. Piper Verlag Munich 1963
- Gabriella Catalano: Goethe e Cagliostro. Analisi del rapporto del poeta con l'avventuriero siciliano alla luce del "Gross-Cophta" . Napoli Univ. Diss. 1982.
- Alwin Binder : Goethe's “Groß-Cophta” as an analysis of underage society. In: "The Great Cophta". Pp. 144-175. Stuttgart 1989. ISBN 3-15-008539-X
- Jürgen Biefang: Goethe's Groß-Cophta and the decline of the Ancien Régime Frankfurt 1991, ISBN 3-638-69314-7
- Gero von Wilpert : Goethe-Lexikon (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 407). Kröner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-520-40701-9 , pp. 525-529.
- Karl Otto Conrady: Goethe - life and work. Pp. 476-486. Düsseldorf and Zurich 1999, ISBN 3-538-06638-8
- Nicholas Boyle: Goethe. The poet in his time. Vol. 2: 1790-1803. Pp. 218-225. Frankfurt a. M. 2004, ISBN 3-458-34750-X
- Konrad Rahe: Cagliostro and Christ Verlag Dr. Kovac. Hamburg, THEOS - Study series Theological Research Results, Vol. 7 ISBN 978-3-86064-194-1
swell
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Poetic Works, Volume 3 . Pp. 645-727. Phaidon Verlag Essen 1999, ISBN 3-89350-448-6
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: The great cophta. A comedy in five acts . Edited by Alwin Binder . Stuttgart: Reclam 1999. (Universal Library No. 8539) ISBN 3-15-008539-X